The decades long contributor to The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik makes his first appearance on the podcast. Adam has written an essay which was inspired by a commencement he recently gave at his alma mater, McGill University in Montreal. The essay (bound just like a book) is called “All That Happiness: Some Words on What Matters” (Liveright, 2024) and is currently available. Our society is obsessed with achievement. Young people are pushed toward the next test or the ‘best’ grammar school, high school, or college they can get into. Adults push themselves toward the highest-paying, most prestigious jobs, seeking promotions and public recognition. As Gopnik points out, the result is not so much a rat race as a rat maze, with no way out. Except one: to choose accomplishment over achievement. Achievement, Gopnik argues, is the completion of the task imposed from outside. Accomplishment, by contrast, is the end point of an engulfing activity one engages in for its own sake. From stories of artists, philosophers, and scientists to his own fumbling attempts to play Beatles songs on a guitar, Gopnik demonstrates that while self-directed passions sometimes do lead to a career, the contentment that flows from accomplishment is available to each of us. A book to read and return to at any age, “All That Happiness Is” offers timeless wisdom against the grain.
The team behind a new documentary called “Uncropped”, filmmaker DW Young and producer Judith Mizrachy return to the podcast four years after their last visit with “The Booksellers”. “Uncropped” follows the life and career of the photojournalist –employed for the crux of his career by The Village Voice– James Hamilton, who also joins us in this conversation. The film has had a successful festival and theatrical run, and is now available on digital platforms.
